Rhetorical Devices In Independence Day

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Thomas Hatfield Leonila Espinoza English 1301 3/19/2023 Independence Day Analysis In the speech from the movie Independence Day, the president argues that the Fourth of July should be celebrated as a worldwide holiday because the people of the world have come together as one people. The rhetorical devices being used in his speech are logos, to explain why they fight, pathos, using patriotism and hope to invoke an emotional response, and kairos, with the timing being of great importance to make his words have more power behind them. The movie Independence Day is a fictional story about how earth was invaded by an alien race that wanted to take over the world. The story begins with a mothership coming to earth and destroying a …show more content…

As the president uses a police car as a makeshift podium, he gathers the attention of the soldiers preparing for battle and greets the armies. He begins his speech by talking about how they will soon be entering the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind where they will be fighting for their freedom. This supports the idea that the timing of his speech was at a key point in the story and was important in conveying his message as a whole in a powerful way, thus displaying the effects of the rhetorical device kairos. This also displays the rhetorical device logos, as the way that he speaks to his audience shows that he is trying to give them confidence by saying that the battle that they are going to fight is the largest aerial battle in history, showing that there has been more preparation for this aerial battle than any …show more content…

While kairos and logos are helpful in supporting the argument by using proper timing of the speech and grounding the speech with reasonable motives respectively, and ethos gives him a small bonus of credibility because he is president, the rhetorical device that has the most impact in the speech and is the main method of expression is pathos. This is because of the way that the music is presented during the speech with the music continuously being built up from a slow instrumental of trumpets and violins in the beginning, to a grand orchestra of multiple instruments playing together at the end, giving the final part of the already powerful speech a greater conclusion and solidifying its message of